


Secret Santa

by grass (greisful)



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: F/M, Holiday, Humor, Humour
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-29
Updated: 2016-05-29
Packaged: 2018-07-10 20:44:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7005697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greisful/pseuds/grass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              
<p></p><div class="center">
  <p>If there was one thing that Ida Lovelace absolutely hated, it was the fact that her birthday came around the time of Christmas because everyone completely forgot about her. And so when her piano class decides to do Secret Santa, she doesn't bother pointing out that her birthday is coming up, because no cares and no one remembers.</p>
  <p>Well, almost no one.</p>
</div>
            </blockquote>





	1. Speedy Gonzales

**Author's Note:**

>  
> 
>   
> banner by seeingred @ 5SOSFF proboards  
> 

It seemed like only yesterday it had been January 1st to Ida, but the truth was that it was nearing December 24, and no one had said anything about her birthday coming up. She was turning the big 18, officially becoming an adult, and no one even remembered.

But what else was new?

Most people assumed that because your birthday was near Christmas that you got double the presents. Ida was there to inform everyone that that was really, really, not the case. At all. If anything, her birthday was completely overlooked by everyone, and sometimes even her family.

It's not that she even wanted presents but a nice "Happy Birthday!" instead of "Tomorrow is Christmas!" would've sufficed.

But hey, there was a week to go before her birthday actually arrived so things might've actually been different this year. It was highly unlikely considering that nothing had changed in the last eighteen years but a girl could dream.

And as if the rest of the world wasn't rubbing it in already, her piano teacher decided that it would've been a great idea to do a Secret Santa with everyone in the class. Because that's what Ida was really looking forward to, having to buy someone else a present.

She wasn't really one of the most vocal people in her piano class if she was being perfectly honest. She tended to focus on her music and only on her music whereas the rest of her classmates chatted with each other whenever they had the time.

That was also probably while she was her teachers favourite student, Ida didn't waste her time with idle chitchat. Miss Ella wasn't necessarily strict but she expected her students to be dedicated and to work hard, if you respected her then she would respect you. Admittedly, she was a little scary when she got angry or irritated, her Russian accent got considerably thicker and she became harder to understand.

But the gist of it was that Ida was not a big fan of Secret Santa. She didn't know her classmates well enough to be able to buy them anything and know with one hundred percent certainty that they would like it. And it's not as if she could just buy some chocolate, put it in a bag with tissue paper and go, "Hope you enjoy this."

After all, she wasn't that cheap.

Although she could understand it if the person was struggling financially and chocolate was the only thing that they could afford.

When she arrived for her piano lesson on Saturday at one o'clock, she was dreading the moment when her teacher would hold out a hat with names in it and ask everyone to take one out. But Miss Ella never mentioned anything throughout the entire class and Ida had begun to hope that maybe, just maybe, Miss Ella had forgotten about Secret Santa.

Miss Ella was known for her sharp memory but it was all Ida had and she was going to hold onto that small glimmer of hope for as long as she could.

Luckily for her, Secret Santa was the very last thing that was on Miss Ella's mind. She started the class off on their triads, she would bark out a name and the class would change their fingering accordingly. She would tell them what major or minor she wanted to play and everyone would accordingly go up and down the scale correctly. Everyone had learned to perfect all of this after all of these years with her. If you messed up on your triads or scale then Miss Ella would make everyone redo the entire thing from the very beginning.

Once that was done, they went back to their old song from last class and played it together, Ida waited patiently while Miss Ella stopped at each person and asked them to play the song individually. She would either nod in satisfaction or ask them to practice more.

And then they were moving on to a new song. Miss Ella stood at the front next to her own piano and wrote on the board and explained what they would be learning.

And the class continued on like this for almost an entire hour. Ida was beginning to hope that Miss Ella had actually forgotten about the whole Secret Santa thing and by the time that only ten minutes of class was left, she was sure that her teacher _had_ forgotten. She felt like she would be able to walk out of the room without a care in the world, and without having to be reminded of the fact that her birthday would be forgotten yet again.

And by the looks of concentration that was on everyone else's faces as they practiced at their own pianos, Miss Ella wasn't the only one who had forgotten Secret Santa.

Although, if she had to pick people to forget about it, strangers would probably hurt less than family members and others that she was close with.

But alas, the world had other things in mind for her. Just as she had packed up her practicing book and put it away in her bag, Miss Ella clapped her hands to catch the attention of the class. Ida looked up from her bag, and the feeling of freedom that she had was replaced with one of complete and utter dread.

Because right at the front of the classroom stood Miss Ella with a hat in her hand with bits of paper in it.

So much for luck.

One by one, students began to go up and pick out names from the hat. It seemed as if everyone except Ida was delighted with who they were picking. She hoped that if she kept quiet enough and tried to blend in as well as she could then maybe she wouldn't actually have to go up and pick a name out of the hat. Maybe she'd be able to race out of the classroom once her class officially ended and never look back.

"Is there anyone that has not picked a partner?" Miss Ella asked, shaking the hat high above her head. Ida looked down at her feet and crossed her arms, trying to make herself seem as small as possible.

Just when she had thought that she had gotten away with it, someone yelled out,

"Ida hasn't picked anyone!"

Her head snapped up and she looked around trying to find out who had sold her out. She was surprised that anyone actually remembered her name, it wasn't as if she actually spoke to anyone in the class all that often. She sure as hell didn't remember their names.

"Come on up Ida, pick out a name, only one left," Miss Ella said, holding out the hat invitingly. Ida got up with a grimace and dragged her feet to the front of the classroom. She reached into the hat, pulled out the remaining piece of paper in it, and held it by the tips of her fingers, as if it was some disgusting piece of garbage that Ida had come by. While Miss Ella put away the hat from wherever she had procured it, Ida was unfolding her small piece of paper in her hand.

She frowned down at the name that was written on it.

_Ashton Irwin_

Who in the hell was Ashton Irwin? Was there even an Ashton Irwin in her class? How come she had never spoken to him? Ida wasn't great with names but she had some idea of what everyone's names were supposed to be and Ashton didn't ring any bells. She knew that there was someone with a name like Alex or something but definitely not Ashton.

She looked up from her paper and scanned the room, trying to figure out who on earth she was supposed to buy a gift for. It wasn't any of the girls, she knew that for sure, they all had their names written on their bags and none of them said Ashton on it. And as far as she could tell, none of the boys particularly looked like an Ashton.

And then her gaze finally landed on a boy in the left corner of the room who had his fringe falling into his eyes and a muscle shirt on. She frowned at the smile that he was giving her, but was soon distracted by the big beanie that was sitting on top of his head.

And right there, on his beanie, in big letters, was printed the name Ashton.

Well, that solved that mystery. 


	2. Don't Talk to Strangers

Ida was never one to dilly dally, after each piano lesson, she was usually the first to pack up her books, push in her stool, and book it out of the room. But for the first time in perhaps ever, someone had beaten her and was blocking the way to her mum. She tried to look over the shoulder of the boy that was blocking her but he had an annoying habit of twisting every which way that Ida was.

"Can I help you?" Ida asked rudely. She was moments away from shoving the boy aside and getting on her way.

"My name is Ashton."

"You don't say," she responded dryly, looking pointedly up at his hat.

"So you noticed!" he exclaimed, his face lighting up in a childish smile. She had never seen someone near twenty look so young before in her life. It was slightly unsettling if she was being honest.

"It's hard not to," she responded. And in truth, Ashton's hat was the loudest piece of garment that Ida had ever laid eyes on. She didn't know where he had gotten it from but she kind of wanted to snatch it off of his head and set it on fire.

"Funny," he said with a grin and Ida rolled her eyes. He wanted something from her, she could tell, and she was hoping that he would get to the point soon.

"Look, what do you want?" she asked with a sigh. Ida grabbed Ashton by the elbow and moved him out of the doorway and to the side. The last thing she wanted was people grunting in annoyance behind her. And if the large piano poking into his back would get him to leave her alone a lot faster then all the better.

"To be your friend," Ashton answered simply, hands clasped behind his back.

"Now, of all times," Ida said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"No, but it's suspicious."

"Look, you want to hang out or not?" Ashton finally asked and Ida couldn't help but grin in triumph. She knew that her knack for pissing people off would come in handy one day.

"You'll have to ask my mom," Ida said and breezed past him. She was fairly certain that her mum would say no to the request, she usually wanted to meet the parents of anyone that Ida wanted to hang out with and if she didn't approve, Ida wasn't going anywhere. It was almost guaranteed that her mum would say no and then Ida would be free.

"Hey mum," she said, and wrapped her mum in a tight hug, her piano bag hanging from one hand.

"Hey sweetie, who's this?" her mum asked, looking behind Ida and staring at Ashton.

"Classmate," Ida replied shortly.

"Hullo Ida's mum, I was wondering if it would be okay if Ida and I hung out for an hour and then I dropped her off home," Ashton said and gave his most charming grin.

"That's fine, have fun Ida," Ida's mum said, patting her daughter on the back and pushing her towards Ashton.

"Wait, what?" she asked in total confusion. This wasn't like her mum at all, she didn't even know Ashton, let alone his family.

"He comes from a lovely family, have fun, and stay safe," her mum said. She stared straight into Ashton's eyes, and then with a final smile she walked off. How did her mum know Ashton's parents? Were they all secretly meeting up and thinking of ways to force Ida into friendships?

"Am I supposed to call you when I want to go home?!" Ida yelled after her desperately. There would be time to interrogate her mum when she got home later on but for now she was stuck with Ashton the overgrown child.

"It's okay, I can drive you home," Ashton said and threw an arm around Ida's shoulders. Her knees almost buckled from the sheer force that he hit her with and scowled.

Great.

Ashton waved goodbye to Ida's mum and then steered his new friend out of the reception area and back into the mall area. Ida was growling quietly  and pretty much making sure that everyone stayed out of her and Ashton's way as they walked.

"Where are we going?" she asked.

"Wherever you want," Ashton said, spreading out his left arm while he held her to his right side.

"I want to get some food, I'm hungry," Ida said squirming under Ashton's strong grip. She finally managed to squeeze out from under his arm and checked to make sure that her hair was still in its glorious state.

"Watch the hair next time will you, it's not easy to get it looking this great," Ida said as she lead the two of them to the food court.

"So there will be a next time!"

"If you get rid of that ridiculous hat and I don't hate you by the end of this, then sure, why not," Ida said. She temporarily abandoned Ashton to get in line for a burger and a drink while he wandered off a little aways from her to order his own food.

The two of them met up at a small circular table and took a seat. Ida immediately dug into her burger and just about ignored Ashton the entire time that she was eating. Meanwhile he chewed his salad and rice at a glacial pace while he watched her in amusement.

Within ten minutes, Ida was finished and wiping her mouth clean. "Do you mind hurrying it up, I don't really want to spend the entire hour watching you eat your rabbit food."

"Don't insult my rabbit food, it happens to be delicious," Ashton said, pointing his fork at her. Nonetheless, he picked up his pace and the two of them went back to wandering around again.

"Alright, now where do you want to go?" Ashton asked, as he peered into store after store that the two of them passed by.

"If it's not below you, I want to go look for shoes," Ida said and headed in the direction of her favourite store.

"You really like shoes?" Ashton asked as Ida wove in and out of people at top speed.

"I love shoes, especially heels, they just make it so much easier to look down on certain people," Ida said. "And besides,I have to pick out a pair for my secret santa to buy."

"You already know who your secret santa is?" Ashton asked innocently. He wasn't exactly being very subtle. He might as well have told Ida that he was her Secret Santa when he went up to her and asked her to hang out. No one showed that much interest that suddenly.

"Oh stop being stupid, I know it's you," Ida said with a friendly punch to Ashton's arm, which almost knocked him over.

"No, it's not."

"Right, and you just happened to choose now of all times to decide and be my friend," Ida said with a roll of her eyes. She stopped in front of the store and spread her arms out. "We're here, bask in the glow of the beautiful shoes."

"They're . . . high," Ashton finally said.

"That's all you have to say?"

"I'm sorry, I don't normally wear high heels, this isn't my area of expertise," Ashton replied. Ida simply sighed and dragged him into the store.

"Just don't pick anything too expensive okay, your secret santa isn't rich," Ashton said as Ida deposited him on a seat and proceeded to take a turn about the room, inspecting each shoe closely before checking the tag.

Some were too high, others were the wrong colour, some had ugly chunky heels, and yet others had a weird cut and ugly details. Finally, she came across a pair that were aesthetically pleasing as well as incredibly cheap. Ida got the shoe in her size and then sashayed in front of Ashton to make sure that they were comfortable and looked good.

"These ones, these are the ones," Ida said, nodding approvingly at her appearance in the mirror. "Tell my secret santa I want these in a size six."

"You have freakishly small feet," Ashton said as Ida returned the shoes back to the salesperson and left the store with Ashton.

If he kept this up, Ida was just going to find some bull shit and give it to him as a present. They were barely acquaintances and he was already giving her attitude.

"You should probably take me home now," Ida said, digging out her phone and checking the screen. She'd accomplished what she wanted, even though finding her secret santa and telling him what to buy her was not what she had imagined would happen on this little mall trip. Ashton pouted at her and crossed his arms like a kid.

"I have somewhere I need to go first," Ashton said and without further ado, he dragged Ida off to God knew where. She tripped over her feet as she struggled to keep up with Ashton's long strides and only managed to regain her balance once he had stopped walking and she ran into him.

"A little more warning next time would be great," Ida grumbled and touched her hair. He still wasn't getting the hair thing, was he?

She took a good look store and was surprised. Ida hadn't thought that anyone in her class actually paid attention to music outside of class. Much like her, she assumed that most of the people there were there because their parents had forced them to attend classes.

Although she had to admit that she enjoyed classes, Ida was never going to admit that to her mum, not after the screaming matches that she had put her mum through when she was younger.

"What are we doing here?" Ida asked as she followed Ashton inside the store. He made his way through the shop expertly, as if he had come back over and over to check on something.

"I just need to check something," Ashton said, jogging away from Ida and over to a guitar. He picked it up and looked it over before finding what he was looking for. Ashton cursed under his breath and put the guitar back in its place and walked dejectedly back to Ida.

"Is something wrong?" she asked. A minute ago, he had been bubbly and pretty much bouncing off of the walls and now Ashton looked like he just wanted to go home and take a nap.

"Nothing."

"You dragged me all the way over here when you could've been driving me home now I demand to know why you look like someone just ran over your cat," Ida replied firmly and crossed her arms.

"Sorry, I've just been wanting that guitar for a while and I'm still a hundred and fifty dollars short and it's going away soon. I'm not sure where I'm going to get that money," Ashton said dejectedly as he walked away from the shop.

Ida stopped walking and looked at Ashton's retreating back for a moment, lips pursed. One hundred and fifty dollars was a lot, well, it was for her, anyway, considering she was at the moment kind of broke. Her only source of income was the change that her mum didn't want. But it wasn't impossible to earn one hundred and fifty dollars, she'd just have to do some work around the house.

A lot of work. But it was manageable.

The question was, did she really want to make such an effort for someone that she had just met?

"Well, come on them, I generally don't abandon friends at the mall after promising them a ride home," Ashton called back to her.

Well for a friend, she guessed that she would put in all that work to make them happy.


	3. Workaholic

When Ida got home, the first words out of her mouth were, "Mum, what do I need to do to earn one hundred and fifty dollars in one week?"

Her mum simply stared at her blankly, the water running from the faucet into the sink behind her, before replying, "Get a job."

Ida rolled her eyes at the reply but decided to lay off of the sarcasm. It wasn't as if it hadn't occurred to her that a job would be the fastest way to earn money, but the chances of her getting a job that would get her the money she needed in one week were extremely unlikely.

The alternative, her mum.

"Okay, something more realistic," Ida said. She put away her shoes, and hung up her jacket, her piano bag dangling from the wrist of her right hand.

"Pretty much everything around the house except cook because no offense sweetie, but you're hopeless at it," her mum said. She turned off the tap and wiped her hands on the towel hanging from the oven.

"What does everything entail exactly?" Ida asked with a sigh.

"Dusting, vacuuming, changing the sheets, doing the laundry, mowing the lawn, going shopping for food, cleaning the floors, the bathroom, the windows, the stove, washing the dishes, taking out the garbage, stuff like that," her mum said with a bright smile.

Ida almost groaned, that was a lot to do, but at least she was off from school so it's not like she had to add that to her list of things to worry about. If she worked fast enough, she could get everything done in time to relax or sleep.

"Alright, I'll start right now, just let me change," Ida said and dragged her feet out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her bedroom. She put away her piano bag in her closet and switched her clothes, put on a headband to make sure that her hair didn't get in her eyes, and then headed back downstairs.

Her mum had moved into the living room and was watching the telly with her feet up on the coffee table. Ida took her place in front of the kitchen sink and began the job of washing the dishes by hand. They didn't use a dishwasher in her house, despite the fact that they had a perfectly good one, because her mum believed that the dishwasher couldn't get the dishes clean the same way that manual labour could get the dishes clean. They'd used it once and then never again because Ida's mum hadn't been happy with the result of the dishes.

So now Ida was stuck standing for ten minutes as she scrubbed away and rinsed the dishes before setting them out to dry.

She took out the trash because it was pretty much overflowing with garbage and then put a new bag in.

She jogged upstairs and started piling everyone's dirty laundry into one basket before carrying it back downstairs, praying to God that she wouldn't miss a step and then fall down the stairs and probably break her neck. Once the laundry got going, Ida dragged out the vacuum and plugged it in.

The carpets that her family had in the house were total pains in the ass because it was damn near impossible to actually clean them. Paper got stuck in it and so did clumps of dust and Ida had to use all of her strength just to push the goddamn vacuum five centimetres. She begged her mum to get a new carpet after almost breaking her ribs vacuuming one time but her mum simply scoffed and said that she was exaggerating.

And so grunting and sweating with the effort that it took to move the vacuum, Ida's hair got considerably bigger and her arms became sore from all of the effort. After almost an hour spent on the first floor, she was done. Well, with the first floor, that is. And then she had to lift the vacuum up to the second floor of the house and clean all of the three rooms upstairs.

By the time that Ida finished with the vacuum, she was panting and her throat and tongue had gone dry. She got herself a drink of water before grabbing a bucket to fill with water and soap, and a towel to clean the floors. She took her time, making sure that each and every corner of floor was cleaned, even going so far as to move furniture out of the way to get to the dust and other dirt.

Her mum stepped around her daughter as she cooked dinner for Ida and her dad. Ida rinsed out the bucket and the towel before putting them back in their place and checking the washing machine.

"Here, have a cookie, sweetie," her mum said and handed Ida a cookie, which she took and pretty much inhaled in five seconds. She told herself that she was going to wash the windows, and then do the dishes again after dinner and that would be all for the day.

Ida was beginning to regret not helping her mum out around the house more often. She went to work and then she came home and cooked for her and her dad and then she would do the dishes and vacuum, or do the laundry. Ida didn't realise how difficult the job was until now. Sure, her dad helped out as much as he could, he put away his own things and cleaned up after himself, but he was pretty clueless when it came to doing other things.

If Ida had been in her mum's place, she had an idea that she probably would've snapped by now and started yelling. Mums were a strange and interesting species, they were the strongest people in the world.

When Ida's dad finally came home from wherever he had been, he looked around the house and blinked around in surprise.

"Everything looks weirdly clean," he said as he looked down at the shiny floor and the clean carpet and sparkling dishes.

"Cheers," Ida said to her dad from her spot on the kitchen counter next to her mum. Everyone in her family had a tendency of using the back door to get into the house instead of the front door. Her mum had thrown a fit over it once, claiming that they were tracking dirt all over her house with their shoes, but after Ida and her dad kept coming in the wrong way, her mum eventually gave up and put out a mat for them to wipe their feet on.

"Who are you and what have you done to my daughter?"

"Your daughter needs one hundred and fifty dollars, so she's working to earn it," her mum said from her spot by the stove.

"What do you need so much money for?" her dad asked frowning as he shrugged off his coat.

"Secret Santa," Ida said.

"Five minutes until dinner is ready, go change," Ida's mum said to her dad, who left muttering under his breath something about secret santa being so expensive. Five minutes later, they were all seated at the kitchen table and eating in silence.

"So how do you feel about your birthday coming up, huh?" her mum asked with a smile.

"The big eighteen," her dad appended. Ida pushed around her meatballs with her fork and shrugged. If she was being honest, she had expected it to go just like every other birthday, pretty much everyone but her parents would forget and she'd probably end up with a cupcake with a candle stuck in it. She didn't really want to think about it to be honest.

"It'll be the same as all of my other birthdays," Ida said and shoved food into her mouth as an excuse for not talking. Her parents dropped the subject and they ate in silence for a while. Her mum and dad chatted quietly about work and their relatives, but Ida was too tired to actually pay any attention, not that she usually did.

When she was finished eating, she put her plate in the sink and went searching for some Windex and a cloth to use on the windows. While her parents still ate and talked, Ida got to work on the windows on the second floor. She tried her best to clean the windows from the outside but there wasn't much she could besides squeeze half of her body out of the window and try and scrub away at the dirt on the window without falling out. So she gave up on hanging out of her house at a dangerous angles and moved on downstairs, which took more time than the upstairs. She had to clean everything from the inside first, and then she had to go outside and do the same thing again.

By the time she earned all of the money that she would need, Ida was pretty sure that she would have some killer muscles, and if she was calculating correctly, she'd be cutting it real close with the present. She figured she would just put the money in an envelope, sign it Secret Santa, and then hand it in.

She was so happy to go up to bed at the end of the day and fall asleep. And so the process began again the next day, and the next day after that. Every morning Ida would get up early to start doing her chores. She'd wash, get dressed, eat breakfast and then decide on how she wanted to start her morning.

It seemed like everything was trying to make her job more difficult. It was ridiculously hot every single day, her hair grew to alarming lengths because of the humidity, and within an hour or two, she was covered in sweat, panting, and thirsty. She resorted to carrying around a bottle of water just to remain hydrated. She seriously considered going outside and just hosing herself down instead of choosing to stay in the house.

By the time that lunch came around, Ida pretty much dropped into a chair and shoved as much food into her mouth as she could before asking for seconds.

The worst part was the cobwebs, no, not the rib-cracking vacuum, but the cobwebs, because cobwebs always meant spiders and Ida hated spiders. She had a book upstairs on which ones were poisonous or not but she had a horrible time of remembering which ones would kill her so she'd grab a broom, swipe at the spider, and then run for the doors as fast as she could.

And the more annoying part, Ashton kept dropping by. He didn't come by to help her, oh no, that would've been too saintly of him, if he wasn't talking to her mum about God knew what, then he was sitting around while she did all of the housework and commented on her technique or pointed out missed spots. It got on her nerves so much that she broke the handle on her broom and had to go out and buy a new one.

She was slaving all day just so that the unhelpful idiot could sit around the house and tell her that she was doing something wrong when she knew perfectly well that she was doing it right. She was doing all of this to earn money for his ugly mug, but she couldn't tell Ashton that because then it kind of ruined the point of secret santa. It was bad enough she'd already figured out he was her secret santa.

And it was kind of funny really, she thought, after all, what were the chances that the two of them would end up being each other's secret santa?

"Alright, enough, if you're not helping me clean, then get out," Ida said, pointing with her broom towards the kitchen back door one day. She'd had enough, she would've much rather have worked by herself than have Ashton around doing nothing.

"What?" Ashton asked.

"If you're not going to help me clean, then get out," Ida repeated slowly. As sure as she was that Ashton was a great guy, and she knew for a fact that he was incredibly funny, he was only getting in her way and bringing more dirt into the house.

"I'm sorry but you're only getting in my way and I'm really not in the mood to entertain you right now," Ida said as she walked him outside of her house. And then she slammed the door in his face and went back to cleaning.

But despite the tiring housework, Ida was kind of glad to do it, she at least had something to do now instead of sitting around and practicing on her piano all day. Of course, she could've been cleaning around the house way before now but Ida hadn't met a teenager that willingly did chores and with no reward of money. Her parents paid her twenty five dollars every day, just like they said that they would and all in all, it wasn't that bad of a deal really.

She got faster and faster as the days passed by to the point where she actually had some time to spend practicing new techniques on her piano for her upcoming class. After all, it wasn't as if the entire thing would be spent on Secret Santa. Although considering it would be the day before Christmas, she was hoping that maybe Miss Ella would give them a break.

It was wishful thinking because if anyone knew Miss Ella, and Ida knew her very well, then they knew that she wouldn't go easy on them for something as simple as a holiday, and a holiday that she didn't celebrate at that.

Slowly, the amount of money began to add up, first twenty-five, then fifty, then seventy-five, then a hundred, then one hundred and twenty-five, and finally one hundred and fifty dollars.

And upon receiving that last payment on the day before her class, Ida dropped to the floor spread eagled, for once thankful that her frizzy hair was providing a cushion for her head, and said, "Oh, thank God."


	4. Surprise

The next day, Ida put extra care into her appearance, well, even more care into her appearance. She made sure that her hair was exactly in the style that she wanted it to be and that it would last the way throughout the day. Her outfit was relatively neutral coloured, and even though she knew that no one would remember her birthday, it didn't mean that she wanted to forget about it. If she wasn't going to make her birthday special to her on her own, then she wouldn't have expected other people to.

Maybe she'd attempt to bake herself a cake when she got home.

Today she was turning eighteen and no one was going to ruin it. She was officially becoming an adult now, she could do everything that the adults in her life were doing without it being against the law. Not that she was exactly planning on getting completely wasted on her eighteenth birthday.

Her mum and dad greeted her with open arms when she got downstairs. They wrapped her in warm hugs, gave her kisses, and wished her a happy eighteenth birthday.

Well, at least she could count on her parents.

The drive over to her music lesson was pretty quiet but there really wasn't much that Ida could talk about.

But when she got there, everyone else in the class was already there, Ida was, for the first time in, well, ever, the one that was late, and it looked like they were all waiting for her. Okay, that was weird, and why were they all looking at her so expectantly? Was there something on her face? What was going on?

"Is everyone okay?" Ida asked them slowly as she walked over to the only remaining piano that was left, everyone's eyes followed her. Ashton cleared his throat loudly and it was almost as if everyone snapped out of a trance because they all stopped looking at Ida.

Something was up.

Ida took off her coat and put it down on the bench next to her and brought up her gift to Miss Ella. She tried to hide it from view, if anyone saw what it was then it would be easy to guess that Ida was the one who had gotten the money.

Once Miss Ella had gathered all of the presents, she clapped for everyone's attention and the whole unwrapping bit came up.

Ida was the first one to offer to open her present and when she took the lid off of the box of shoes, she found the pair that she had told Ashton that she wanted and grinned down at them. Ashton was many things but Ida had never thought that he would be reliable. At least he came through with his end of the deal.

She pretended to take her time guessing at who could have gotten such nice shoes in exactly the right size before locking eyes with Ashton and pointing him out with a grin.

And then it was Ashton's turn and Ida couldn't wait to see the look on his face when he opened his envelope and saw the money that was inside. He sat with his leg jiggling, that absolutely atrocious hat of his sitting on his messy hair proudly. Ida was going to have to steal that hat and burn it if Ashton wouldn't get rid of it willingly.

He had a happy excited smile on his face as he opened the flap of the envelope and looked inside. And then his mouth dropped open and his eyebrows disappeared into his fringe.

Ida couldn't help her own grin that was spreading across her face as she looked at the complete and utter shock on his face. Ashton pulled out the dollar bills and looked around the class with his jaw hanging open.

"B-but, how?" he asked weakly and looked around at the surprised faces of everyone else.

"How could any of you have known that this was what I needed?" Ashton asked looking around at everyone, trying to see if any of them knew anything about it. And then he finally saw Ida, who was bouncing in her seat by this point  and Ashton just about threw himself across the room at her.

"THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!" he yelled as he crushed the air out of her lungs in a big hug.

"The hair, the hair!" Ida choked out.

"Oh, sorry," Ashton said, letting go of her.

"You're welcome," Ida said.

"You have no idea how much I appreciate this," Ashton said to her.

"Well you better, I had to clean the toilet for a week to earn that money," Ida said.

While everyone else opened their presents and started guessing, Ashton couldn't help but look at all of the money that now belonged to him, first thing that he was going to do after class was drive home for the rest of his money and them come back to buy that guitar. After Ashton's turn, Ida had pretty much lost interest in everything and was just waiting to get back to practicing her piece on the piano and moving on with her day. She wanted the class to go by as quickly and painlessly as possible so that she could go home and watch TV.

But that was apparently not the case because as soon as the class was about to go back to its normal schedule, Ida's mum knocked on the door and asked to see Ida.

Once the door was shut behind the two of them, Ida asked her mum, "What's wrong?"

"I was just worried about you sweetie, we almost never do anything special on your birthday and I kind of feel bad for that, so is there anything that you want to do after class? Do you want to go out and eat at a fancy restaurant?" her mum asked, wringing her hands.

"Are you really going to do this right now?" Ida asked her mum, breathing deeply through her nose to remain calm. She was in the middle of a lesson and her mum decides that now would be the best time to bring up and discuss the fact that almost all of Ida's previous birthday's had been spent at home doing nothing?

They could've had this discussion all week, and Ida would've been more than happy to get into it with her mum, it was something that always bothered but not now. What if Miss Ella was giving out important information and Ida missed it because her mum wanted to have a heart to heart in the middle of her class?

"I just don't want you to be unhappy sweetheart, and this is the big eighteen, you're officially becoming an adult, I just don't want this to go wrong," Ida's mum said.

"Mum, I am in the middle of a piano class and you're interrupting it to talk about this now?! Look, we could've had this discussion all week, we can have it after class, it's my birthday okay, yeah it sucks that pretty much everyone forgets about it every year but this isn't really the time to discuss something so unimportant," Ida replied heatedly, and she slowly began to back away from her mum and back towards the classroom.

"But---"

"No, I need to get back to class, we can talk about this later," Ida insisted firmly and turned to go. She missed the panicked look on her mum's face as she turned her back on her and started walking away.

"Ms. Lovelace, if you and Ida are finished, I need her to come back to class now," Miss Ella said, poking her head out of the classroom and into the hallway. Ida's mum sighed in relief and nodded her head.

"We're done," Ida said and pushed open the door.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY IDA!" The yell took Ida by surprise and almost knocked her off of her feet. Everyone in the class had put on a party hat and blowing noise through those paper noise makers. Someone had dragged a large birthday cake out from somewhere in the shape of a hot-air balloon with the words, "Happy 18th Ida!" and a smiley face next to it.

"I-what-how-I'm . . . " Ida stuttered as she looked around at all of the smiling, happy faces that surrounded the room. She hadn't told anyone in here that it was her birthday, how could they possibly have known about it? How had they set this all up without her knowing.

"Happy Birthday, sweetie," her mum said, giving Ida a one-armed hug. Meanwhile Ida still couldn't comprehend the fact that everyone was celebrating her birthday, and that it was all for her. These people that she hadn't even spoken to, were wishing her a happy birthday.

"Who did this?" Ida managed to squeak out.

"That would be me, the one and only," Ashton said, pushing through everyone and giving Ida a low bow.

"Thank you so much!" Ida said and threw her arms around Ashton in a hug and practically broke his ribs with her strength. "But how did you know it was my birthday?"

"Why do you think I was over at your house talking to your mum so much?" Ashton told her. "No offense but you don't exactly have a sparkling personality when you're angry."

"Thanks," Ida told him and moved over to the cake. She tugged the cover off of it and licked off of some of the icing.

"Does anyone have candles?" Ida asked, and someone lobbed a package at her that almost poked her in the eye. She opened the package and stuck on eighteen candles, Miss Ella provided the lighter and everyone gathered around to sing Happy Birthday to Ida while she blew out the candles.

"Let's cut up this cake!" Ida said and there was lots of cheering all around because come on, who doesn't like cake?

"I get the biggest piece!" Ashton yelled loudly in Ida's ear.

"Alright, alright, shut up," Ida said, flapping her hand at him to get him to move away. She never thought her eighteenth birthday would quite like this, but there were upsides to being friends with someone like Ashton, even if he did act like an annoying puppy the majority of the time. 


End file.
